I love the word purpose. Websters defines it as “something set up as an object or end to be attained.” To me, nothing defines our purpose more than Matthew 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”
How would you describe your daily walk with Christ? We can use many words to do this, but boring is one word that should never be used to describe our walk. If we have reduced the purpose of our daily walk into the tasks of weekly worship attendance, daily scripture reading, prayers, and the giving of tithes, we can go through our entire Christian life and totally miss our purpose for being left on this earth. If you have no purpose other than a task, it is just a matter of time before your walk with Christ can become stagnant and boring. The Great Commission is our purpose.
As we go through our daily lives, we need to remember that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ, and as followers of Jesus, we walk in His authority. This is very important. My question is this: are we being good stewards of the authority that has been entrusted to us? Meditate on this passage found in 2 Corinthians 5:19-20: “That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.” We are His ambassadors, and we are to daily live out our Christian lives as though God Himself was making His appeal through us. This is PURPOSE!
There is nothing like walking into a home and seeing the symbol of witchcraft and voodoo hanging over the door. If you have no purpose, you might walk into the home and simply try to help by giving out a water filter or some food. But when we are are ambassadors for Christ, we realize that our purpose is not to just meet the physical need. Our purpose is to give grace so that truth will be received. This very thing happened on our last mission to Cuba. Our purpose for this mission was to go back into the homes of people who had made professions of faith in earlier missions and help the local church with this follow-up process.
As we were doing this, we passed a Cuban lady who had a very evil look about her. Her eyes were filled with anger and hate. She was a follower of Santaria, which is Voodooism camouflaged in Catholicism. Purpose demands you stop, and love demands you open your mouth. The Gospel is still the power of God unto salvation. As we were going about our plan to disciple, we were able to enter this woman’s home with the authority and love Christ has given us and share the truth. I wish you could have been there to see Jesus make someone new right in front of our eyes. Her name is Fina, and she is now a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Nothing satisfies us more than walking in the purpose He has given us. As we walked through the streets of Havana as ambassadors of Christ, we saw 43 people give their hearts to the Lord and commit to follow Him. God be praised. We also will be starting a new project to support local Cuban pastors, their families, and the cost of their ministries. Details will come next month about this new pig farm! Our time with Chris Bond of Designs for Hope out of Birmingham, AL, was very productive as well. We now have seven clean water projects that we will begin next month. We will partner with the local church to provide clean water so we can ultimately give them the Living Water. A lot is taking place, and we are thankful for all you do to make this happen. Keep praying , keep giving, and keep going. Lives are being changed!
Jeff McFarland
